The idea of re-imagining the basic skyscraper is not new. But often when builders have set out to make a building more efficient, the end result is either dull, not really big enough to be called a skyscraper, or only uses marginally fewer resources than a plain old building that no one even tried to be even semi-righteously green about anyway. But this building in Pittsburgh is more ambitious than any plain old green skyscraper to date.

Hao Ko

For starters, it’s going to be transparent — literally transparent, though it’s also a nice metaphor for the way companies say they are trying to do business, although since PNC is a bank, we won’t hold our breath. And it’s going to have a sort of second skin, so that air flows into it, rather than getting sucked out, when doors are opened. The frosting on the breathing building cake is a five-story walled-in area that will reflect the weather of the outside — sort of like an enclosed courtyard. In other words, cold in winter, warm in summer. This video explains a little about how it works:

Companies aren’t just trying to build nicer buildings to be nice, of course. They’re interested in efficiency and productivity. So it’s great that they’re going this route, but hmm … maybe a little profit sharing might work too? As long as we’re all breathing here it seemed like a good time to bring that up.